Punjab Kings on Monday defeated Chennai Super Kings by 11 runs in an IPL match. This was the sixth defeat for Chennai Super Kings in eight matches. Mumbai Indias are the only team whose performance has been worse than Chennai Super Kings.
Batting first, Punjab Kings made 187 -4 in 20 overs. Shikhar Dhawan was the leading run-scorer for his side as he remained not out at 88. Bhanuka Rajapaksa made 42 from 32 balls.
In reply, Chennai Super Kings fell short by 11 runs even though Ambati Rayudu played a valiant knock of 78 runs from 39 balls. Ruturaj Gaikwad made 30.
Punjab Kings skipper Mayank Agrawal said after the match, “I thought Arshdeep bowled exceedingly well, he has bowled the tough overs for us and has been great for us. Even Rabada bowled well, to get Ruturaj and get Rayudu at that stage. These two have been great for us. As a team we have to think about being smart, you want your opposition to play towards the longer side as much as they can. We have won one tonight, but we need to win two or three on the bounce.”
Chennai Super Kings skipper Ravindra Jadeja said, “We started off very well with the ball, but we felt we gave away 10-15 runs extra at the end. We did not execute our plans very well. Rayudu was batting brilliantly throughout but as I said earlier, if we could’ve restricted them to under 175 it would’ve been good. We are not getting good starts in the first 6 overs, that’s where we are lacking and hopefully we will come back stronger.”
Shikhar Dhawan was declared the Player of the Match for his unbeaten knock of 88 from 59 balls.
This year, Mahendra Singh Dhoni had decided to step down as the captain of the CSK. Ravindra Jadeja was promoted as Dhoni’s successor before the start of the IPL.
